Babcock Ranch 100% Solar Powered City

We've heard about ecocities in far away lands, but now there's one planned for the Unities States. Located near Fort Meyers, Florida, Babcock Ranch will be powered entirely by solar power. It's a bold and progressive plan, and if Kitson & Partners can secure all the necessary regulatory approvals, construction will begin this year. The city includes a 75-megawatt, on-site, photovoltaic facility constructed by Florida Power & Light for nearly $350 million.

The 17,000-acre City of Babcock Ranch is surrounded by the 73,000-acre Babcock Ranch Preserve. The nature reserve will be protected and maintained in perpetuity, while the city will be chock full of greenways, parks, and lakes. In short, the entire project has an element of preservation combined with an element of development.

Although Babcock Ranch will be solar power positive, the renderings indicate that small wind will also provide a portion of the city's energy. All commercial buildings and homes will be energy-efficient and certified according to Florida Green Building Council standards. The city will feature sustainable water management and conservation, street lamps designed to reduce light pollution, electrical car chargers and an integrated smart grid system, and green roofs that minimize building energy requirements.

The plan could create thousands of temporary jobs and roughly 20k permanent jobs in a range of industries. Ultimately, Babcock Ranch will have 6 million square feet of retail, commercial, office, civic, and light industrial space, and subject to approvals, construction of the FPL solar facility is targeted for late 2009, city center targeted for mid-2010, and first residential and commercial buildings targeted for late 2010.

Gorgeous. I was just reading about some Chinese city that they are planning on building that has zero cars. Thats right, you are not allowed to have a car there, and there are no roads. Everything is mass transit electric based. Lets hope that we see more of these ideas in the US. Go Florida!

Jeeze i would love to live in a city like this, god damb america wont get of there got damb lazy as to do this already! GOOD JOB! but unless you have a billionair friend no one will start building this till about 2015 if where lucky! with the U.S. now id say 2050… love the idea!

Interesting , I spent 8 years going through this area on the way
back and forth to Miami. I’ve seen this place completely flooded for
months on end, I’ve seen it dry as a desert, couple of years of complete
crop loss,the only way to get drinking
water is to truck it in (unless you can stand heavy sulfur smell ). The
little lakes you see are just sinkholes, That river is a great gator
creek. Do I even need to mention Tropical storms and hurricanes ?